And now it is the turn of another member of equine family ‘The Donkey’ to provide the inspiration for a collection of songs.
“Dominick the Donkey” is a Christmas Song written by Ray Allen, Sam Saltzberg and Wandra Merrell, and was recorded by Lou Monte in 1960, on Roulette Records. The song describes Dominick, a donkey who helps Santa Claus bring presents to children in Italy due to the reindeer being unable to climb the hills (not all cultures believe that reindeer can fly). The song was re-released onto Amazon in September 2011, on Dexterity Records. The spelling of “Dominick” was modified to “Dominic” for the re-release. It was included in Volume 2 of the Ultimate Christmas Album series produced by Collectable Records and on the Christmas compilation album Merry Xmas 2011 by Cinquenta Musica.
“Little Donkey” is a popular Christmas carol, written by British songwriter in 1959, which describes the journey by Mary to Bethlehem on the donkey of the title. The first version to chart was by Gracie Fields, followed a fortnight later by The Beverley Sisters, who overtook her in the charts by Christmas. The song became No. 1 in the UK Sheet Music Chart from mid November 1959 until the end of the year, and a recording by Nina & Frederik reached No. 3 the following Christmas. In the 21st century the song has become something of a signifier of childhood Christmas in popular culture having featured various comedy sketches and especially in the The Ricky Gervais Show as a running gag about Karl Pilkinton’s drum performance of the song.
“Donkey” is a song recorded by American country music artist Jerrod Niemann. It was released in May 2014 as the second single from his album High Noon. The song was written by David Tolliver, Kyle Jacobs, and Fred Wilhelm. “Donkey” was a critical and commercial failure, garnering mostly negative reviews and peaking at only number 43 on the Country Airplay chart. As a result, it was pulled from country radio in June 2014. The song has received mostly negative reviews from critics. Derek Hudgin of Country Perspective gave it a very negative review, calling it “The Worst Country Song of the Year”, and heavily criticizing its lyrics as well as the use of autotune.
“The Wonky Donkey“ is a 2009 children’s book by New Zealander Craig Smith. It is illustrated by British-born Katz Cowley, who has a degree in Illustration from the University of Northumbria. The book is based upon a song that Smith wrote in 2005 after hearing the joke: “What do you call a donkey with three legs? – A wonky donkey”. In 2018 the book was featured in a viral video of a Scottish grandmother laughing hysterically as she attempted to read it to her grandchild, leading to a surge in purchases of the book worldwide.
“Shake You Donkey Up” is a song by Andy Partridge. It appeared on the 1984 album The BIg Express. It also appeared as a B-side to some countries’ “All You Pretty Girls” 12″ single. The demo appeared on Andy’s Fuzzy Warbles collection bonus disc, Hinges. Partridge says that it was “Recorded in Dave Gregory’s front room on his reel to reel for The Big Express. That’s me and him on guitars and I think him on his Fender bass. Clumsy key change place but not bad for feeling it out. Virgin wanted this as a single from the album, even to the point where I went to Bristol to script out a storyboard with Peter Lord of Aardman animation.”
